Utilisation of Liquid and Solid Wastes of Wood Processing in Biocomposites

Abstract

Latvia has the well-developed wood processing. According to the Latvian bioenergy association (LatBioNRG), annually, the forest and wood mechanical processing industries form lignocellulosic wastes and by-products amounted for 6.8 mln. solid m , wood sawdust is one million cubic meters of them. The impregnation of sawdust with the water solutions of the developed lignosulphonate-polymer binder leads to the formation of lignocellulosic composite materials, which can be used for soil mulching. With increasing the lignosulphonate-polymer binder composition, at the same concentration and content, the mechanical properties of the formed composites and the time needed for moisture evaporation from the mulched soil increase. This may indicate the enhancement of the adhesion interaction between the binder and the sawdust as a result of the molecular weight growth of the lignin-based binder with increasing its composition. The modified lignocellulosic composites, containing the sawdust of deciduous wood species, are characterised by the higher mechanical and water resistance properties than the composites containing the sawdust of the coniferous wood specie